The Pompeii Dress

Pompeii has been on my must-see list for a while now. When we finally made plans to go there and do the sightseeing on a very hot and humid day in July during our week on the Amalfi Coast, a suitable thing to wear turned out to be this simple lemon coloured linen shift with some natural leather sandals. The heat combined with the humidity was a killer. So linen was a good fabric to opt for. I guess shorts and a t-shirt would have been the most obvious choice in a hot and dusty area, but I just didn’t feel like doing the typical tourist thing. Besides, there was nothing uncomfortable about wearing a dress while at Pompeii, on the contrary.

I used a sunny yellow linen in a medium to heavy weight from The Fabric Store for this dress. I usually prefer the thicker linens because they have a nicer drape to them, but the thickness always depends on what you want to make out of the linen.

For the pattern, I used one that I have mentioned in my blog many times, in another variation. So my apologies, but here it goes again! I used this pattern in the sleeveless version and narrowed the width by quite a bit to make it into a slight a-line shift dress.

There are two things that I don’t like so much about how this dress turned out. The bust darts are a little too high and the arm holes need to be cut out a little lower. I will leave the darts, as they don’t bother me too much, but the arm holes will need fixing, because after a few hours of wear my armpits get a bit sore.

The back of the dress was supposed to be two pieces, but I decided one piece would look nicer and cut it on the fold. The front and back yokes are interfaced with linen and the whole dress is underlined with yellow lining.

Otherwise, a simple but versatile and cute dress to wear almost anywhere and very quick to make. Once again, no zips or buttons. Just slip it on over your head and dress it up a little with some accessories. I wore a wooden beaded necklace which went well with the natural leather sandals.

Yes, linen creases too much and is not a suitcase-friendly fabric, but it comes in so many gorgeous colours, prints, weights and blends with cotton or silk, that it’s hard to resist. You really can’t beat linens or cottons in summer.

Italy is full of beautiful little shops selling all kinds of linen garments for men and women. I must say, Italians are some of the best dressed people I have seen during my travels. Even little old ladies are clothed in elegant linen pants and shirts with beautiful leather sandals and a classy handbag.

Pompeii was amazing! Some of the merchants and bankers had spectacular palatial homes, like this beautiful atrium house.